Source: National Post
Jamie Sarkonak lays out a disturbing picture in the National Post. Canada’s Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) gives asylum seekers and even rejected claimants more generous health coverage than many ordinary Canadian citizens receive. This includes hospital care, doctor visits, lab work, ambulance services, and until recently, fully free prescriptions plus dental, vision, physiotherapy, counselling, and more. The program cost taxpayers roughly $1 billion last year and was on track to hit $1.5 billion by 2029.
The federal government recently added small user fees — $4 for prescriptions and 30 percent on supplemental services — hoping to slow the bleeding. According to this week’s Parliamentary Budget Officer report, those changes will only save about $162 million this year and around $217 million annually by 2029. That leaves the program still costing over $1.3 billion a year. The main drivers are massive backlogs in asylum claims, slow processing times, and the fact that rejected claimants can remain eligible for this premium coverage for years while appeals and removal proceedings drag on.
Even more shocking is the deportation reality. In 2025, nearly 74,000 people were in the “removals inventory,” yet only 20,000 were actually removed. Thousands more are listed as “wanted” after disappearing from the system or stuck in endless appeals. Canada continues providing luxury-level health care to people who have no legal right to be here.
True North has warned repeatedly about this kind of policy failure. When rejected asylum seekers get better coverage than many working Canadian families, something has gone seriously wrong with our priorities. Taxpayers should not be forced to fund an all-inclusive health resort for the world while our own health-care system groans under pressure.
This is exactly why Canada needs a complete overhaul of the asylum system: faster decisions, much stricter eligibility, and actual deportations for those who don’t qualify. Canadians must come first.
